BATTLEFIELD EARTH: A Saga of the Year 3000

Although he’s best known today as the creator of Dianetics and Scientology, back in the 1930s and ‘40s, Hubbard was a leader among the crew of fast, versatile wordsmiths who produced the reams of copy needed to fill the pages of the pulps. In SF, he gained a reputation as a superlative storyteller with total mastery of plot and pacing. Now, after many years of inactivity, to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary as a writer, Hubbard has written what he calls a "pure science fiction" novel, epic in size and scope and as much fun as anything he ever wrote. Most of today’s readers are unfamiliar with his name and work, so perhaps it would be best to simply say that if you like Heinlein, you’ll like Hubbard. This novel reads like a cross between a Heinlein children’s book (and those are among his best works) and any number of works by Eric Frank Russell (who specialized in humans outsmarting seemingly invincible aliens).The situation is one so familiar, it could be called traditional: a brilliant, brave and athletic young man comes of age in the process of ridding Earth of a 1000-year-old alien occupation. This has everything: suspense, pathos, politics, war, humor, diplomacy and intergalactic finance. The prose is utilitarian and the characters are standard issue, but Hubbard keeps things moving so irresistibly that it doesn’t matter, and the 800 pages go by quickly. As Star Wars demonstrated, pulp still has its appeal. SF’s new, larger audience is about to discover an old master.